Before Nature

A Christian Spirituality

by H. Paul Santmire

Publication Year: 2014

Before Nature caps a set of themes first brought to the fore in Santmire’s previous work, most notably the classic Travail of Nature. Here Santmire continues the pursuit of a theology bound up with nature and its condition, especially the fragility and fervent expectation of nature’s redemption. Out of this concern, Santmire invites readers on a theological and spiritual journey to a prayerful and contemplative knowledge of the Triune God, in which practitioners are inducted into a bountiful relationship with the cosmic and universal ministry of Christ and the Spirit uniting all of nature in a single vision of hope and anticipation. Scholarly, practical, and accessible.

Praise, Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication, Quote

Contents

Prologue: A Christian Spirituality of Nature for Today’s Seekers and
Their Teachers and Pastors

Ours is an era in which “the Nones” represent a growing segment of the U. S.
population. As the time of this writing, almost a fifth of all Americans say that
they have no religious affiliation. By a recent count, there were more Nones
than mainstream Protestants, and it appears that their numbers will continue...

Part I: Considering the Journey

1. Blessedly Scything with God: You Are Invited

During the journey before us, I want to take you to many ordinary places.
This story begins in a field at Hunts Corner, in rural, southwestern Maine, in
the foothills of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. For me, this is a place of
knowing. I invite you to join me in that field...

2. Introducing a Way of Prayer: The Practice and the Knowing of the Trinity Prayer

St. Francis, that great medieval lover of nature, attended Mass every day
throughout much of his life. Dorothy Day, that great American witness to
peace, nonviolence, and justice for the poor, did the same. As we continue
to consider the journey before us, I will not ask you to emulate such saintly...

3. The World in Which We Pray: The Eclipse of God and a Fragile Theology of Faith

Of course, practicing the Trinity Prayer is not enough in itself. Spiritual
practices must be suffused with spiritual knowing if our spirituality is to be for
real. Once the tyranny of the cognitive mind has been overcome, what is to
become of the deeper mind and the thirsting heart? This question returns us to a...

Part II: The First Steps of the Journey

4. Praying to Jesus: The Revelation of God and the Light of Christ

As I begin now to explore some of the meanings within the Trinity Prayer, and
with the first petition in particular—Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me—I invite
you to return with me to a setting we visited in the previous chapter: walking
along the Charles River. By now, you may have noticed that I love that river...

5. The Ambiguous Case of One Who Prays to Jesus: The Twilight and the Encounter

Am I ready to do that? Am I ready to live “between the times,” between
the particular experience of Mary Magdalene and the universal faith of the
Apocalypse—on the one hand entering into communion with the crucified and
risen Lord, while on the other hand standing ready to lay down my own life at...

Part III: Contemplating the Triune God

6. The Heart of the Trinity Prayer: Contemplating the Mystery of the Triune God

Under the rubric of full disclosure, I want to issue this warning here, in the
midst of my narrative. I’m about to take you into the central mystery of this
fragile faith: engagement with God as Trinity. Stand ready, therefore, to take
a quite different turn in our journey, into a spiritual territory where there are...

7. The Presence of the Triune God in Nature: Contemplating God in All Things

I now propose to walk with you around this spiritual summit in order to
contemplate what we can see of the mysterious presence and the majestic works
of the triune God unfolding in every direction. In other words, continue to
praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, invoking the words of the Trinity Prayer...

8. The Works of the Triune God in Nature: Contemplating the Cosmic Ministries of Jesus Christ and the
Holy Spirit

During the thirteen years when I was a college teacher and chaplain, pious
Christian students on occasion would ask me: “Is Jesus Christ your personal
savior?” Sometimes they would also ask: “Have you been baptized by the
Spirit?” In an attempt to explore with these students their own spiritual...

Part IV: Calling on the Holy Spirit

9. Calling on the Holy Spirit: The Integrity and the Travail of Nature

In the words of the popular gospel song, we’ve come this far by faith. In part 1, we considered the journey before us as well as what it can mean to scythe
with God, to practice the Trinity Prayer, and to face the eclipse of God with
a fragile faith. In part 2, I invited you to ponder with me the meanings of this...

10. Sauntering in the Spirit: Practicing the Trinity Prayer

Thoreau once asserted that the word saunter comes from the French sainte
terre, referring to a medieval pilgrimage to the Holy Land.1 In making this
observation, Thoreau was thinking of two things—first, what might be called
a kind of pilgrimage or a mindful walking in wild nature as a world of deep...

Epilogue: The Trinity Prayer as Spiritual Exercise

In the preceding pages, I have regularly recommended doing your spiritual
exercise—in this case by invoking the Trinity Prayer—as often as you can. Let
me recapitulate here. When Jesus says, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Ask,
and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will...

Appendix: Possible Seasonal Hymn Tunes for the Trinity Prayer

The following is a list of the hymn tunes that I have used at different times in
order to sing the Trinity Prayer boldly. I apologize in advance for the parochial
character of this list. These are melodies that happen to be familiar to me. This
means that, by definition, they are only a small slice of available options, and...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.